Chapter Text
Exhaustion weighed heavily on his fractured bones and bruised muscles as he forced himself to continue moving through the trees, using just enough chakra to assist with the distance without running the risk of draining himself dry. Not that it helped much. With the number of injuries he hadn’t bothered to heal beyond functionality, he was traveling at what, for Tobirama, should’ve been considered a leisurely speed. About the average speed of the clan messengers. The speed was acceptable, but it left him disappointed in himself. Far slower than he knew himself capable of, but it was all he could manage in the state he was in. Normally, he would just heal himself or find a place to take shelter, but as of that moment, neither option was viable. Further healing would compromise him, risking depletion of his chakra, leaving him vulnerable to potential threats on his return to Senju territory, and he couldn’t afford to stop his momentum. Not with how he could feel one of his catatonic breakdowns pushing at the edge of his mind. He needed to return to his lab, where he could safely lock himself in and remain undisturbed until it was over.
Honestly, he shouldn’t have taken any missions. Not in the state he had been in prior to leaving the compound. He most definitely shouldn’t have taken the stack of overlapping missions he had agreed to take, but the Senju couldn’t afford for him not to do them. Not when they were playing catch-up with winter just around the corner. They needed the money to buy new nesting supplies for the winter. The usual spare sets of blankets, pillows, futons, and clothing they keep for the colder time of year had dwindled down to nothing over the years due to a lapse in management.
Traditionally, the role of overseeing nesting supplies, such as inventory and budgeting requests, falls to the clan omega, and when the clan omega, his mother, had died, the task should have been taken up by the clan alpha, his father. Except it hadn’t been, and when Batsuma had been teaching Anaija how to run the clan, he hadn’t bothered to inform Hashirama about the store of winter nesting supplies and the upkeep and budgeting that was required for such a thing, leading to this situation, years later, where the original budgeting has been put to use and was now needed else where, while the supplies have been worn down to nothing but a few blankets and flat pillows.
Overall, not the best situation to be in, but there was a rather easy and obvious solution. All that was required was for the clan to run a few extra missions. Something that was quickly approved by Hashirama and the elders, and that should have been that, but clan issues can never be solved that quickly without someone making a fuss about something or other. This time it was the angry alphas and disgruntled omegas who refused to run extra missions without getting anything out of it, seeing as they wouldn’t get to keep any percent of the pay if they wanted to have everything ready for winter in time, which means they needed to do the jobs, get the payment, buy the ready made supplies and request any additions they need to be made, including the extra fee a rush order like that would need.
Since it was something that needed to be done, Tobirama had volunteered to run a few of the extra missions while they got the rest of the clan’s active shinobi on board, but a few of the missions had quickly turned into all of the extra missions. Something that had probably contributed to the state he was in before this run across the elemental nations.
Blinking hard, Tobirama realized that he had traveled too far in this direction while stuck in his head and had to backtrack to the rock formation he was supposed to have taken a left at. It didn’t say anything good about his state if he was making mistakes and wasting energy like that. If he had the extra chakra, he would have pushed his muscles past the burning exhaustion just to get back to Senju territory, but he didn’t have the extra chakra, so he needed to ground himself into the here and now so he wouldn’t fall completely into a state of catatonia somewhere other than his lab.
Sighing, he reached out for warm-smoky-spice to anchor himself in the here and now, only to find burnt-sufficating-spice in its place, startling Tobirama out of his light meditation. His eyes widened in surprise from the pure worry-panic-fury his anchor was projecting. Deciding to take the risk, Tobirama slows to a stop, turning his full attention to his anchor’s surroundings. All around his anchor, there was panic, fear, and anger. Seven chakra signatures that had never left clan ground before were now missing from his anchor’s compound. Three of which were outside the safety of their clan, so weak, barely a flicker of their usual flames, and full of nothing but despair, fear, and mourning. Given how they were overlapping with three out of five unknown shinobi who were traveling quickly in the clan’s opposite direction, he has a general idea of what happened. Especially when the other four signatures were nowhere to be found.
More than likely, the four missing and unaccounted-for signatures were all dead, and the three remaining would likely follow suit if their kami were merciful, because the only other reason to keep the three missing kin of his anchor was a fate worse than death. It was also a fate that Tobirama could spare them with a simple detour. A detour that could spare his anchor some of their inevitable grief.
Not needing to think over his actions any further than the thought of being able to help his anchor, Tobirama bit his thumb, using just enough chakra to summon Akira. Who greeted him with a worried rumble, brushing her head against Tobirama’s uninjured thigh.
“Delivered to Anaija. Clan’s nesting supplies.” Tobirama instructs shortly. Handing over the storage scroll. The words are heavy on his tongue. He has to force himself to blink, shaking off the dazed sensation.
“And while I play messenger bird, where is it you will be running off to, Tobi-cub?” Akira inquired with her nose raised high, turning away from the scroll to show that she would not take it unless her question was answered.
“Thieves to hunt,” Tobirama states. Offering the scroll once more as he focused on the flickering flames, using them to ground his mind and not his anchor because he can’t risk being pulled under by anything if he wants to be useful.
“You were stolen from?” Akira growled, narrowing her eyes at her summoner when he shook his head.
“Bloodline thieves,” Tobirama explained. “I need to go. The pups-”
“Go!” Akira hissed, understanding that children were involved and what that usually means with bloodline-thieves. “Be safe, Tobi-cub.” She orders before snatching the scroll, running in the opposite direction, heading back to Senju territory, while Tobirama forces his limbs to move towards the scared-mourning-dispair, stumbling through the first few steps until he finds his momentum once again and takes off running.
He can’t stop until he’s done, Tobirama realized. He had worried about losing his momentum before that brief stop to check on his anchor, but given the stumbling steps that followed and the thick blanket of exhaustion that settled over his mind and did not dissipate once he started moving again, it was very likely that he would be left catatonic if he stopped again. Even his anchor won’t be able to pull him out of such a state, not immediately at least. It would take a few days blanketed by his anchor’s chakra for his mind to return to his body, and if he stops outside of his lab, even just outside of Senju land, it is very likely that he’ll end up dead, and right now, he’s the only one who knows where the pups are. He can’t die until their kidnappers are dead and the pups are back with their clan. The pups will no doubt be traumatized, especially if four members of their clan had died in front of them, but if he could return them to his anchor alive, Tobirama would be content with that.
Upon reaching the location of what must be the bloodline-thieve hideout, Tobirama took to scouting the outer perimeter of the cave for any potential exits other than the main opening in case the bloodline-thieves tried to escape a different way. Not that the perimeter check could tell him all that much. If the cave was more of an underground system, there could be underground exits he wouldn’t have been able to find without the use of a doton jutsu. A chakra type he didn’t have the ability to mold, unlike Hashirama. His element lying solely with suiton.
With the perimeter as secure as he could make it, Tobirama reached out to check the number of signatures within for a third time. The original five bloodline-thieves had met up with seven others inside of the cave, leaving him with twelve adults to deal with and three pups to keep alive. He has a little less than a sixth of his reserves remaining after summoning Akira, so he’ll have to limit his jutsu usage to only what was strictly necessary. Most likely meaning that Tobirama will have to stick to other means of assasination in order to save it for the pups in case any of them are injured. With there being three of them, the chances are high that one of them, if not all of them, will awaken their bloodline, and if that were to happen, he would have to be prepared to reset multiple pairs of eyes back into their sockets. Ideally he would just suffocate them with water in their airways, but given that the closest water source was the invisible water vapor in the air, it would take too much chakra to gather enough for such a purpose.
Blade it is, Tobirama decides, unsheathing his curved white tanto and in two quick, powerful slashes, both bodies drop to the floor with a dull thunkthunk, thunkthunk that echoed one after the other. A sound that Tobirama can only hope not to have been heard from the kidnappers further in the cave system. Why he would bother with such wishful thinking is beyond him, as not even a minute later, two more shinobi emerged from deeper in the cave, and unlike the first two, Tobirama couldn’t silence both of them fast enough. One body dropped just as the other shouted “White Demon!” alerting the rest to not only his presence, but also his identity.
Annoyed at the prospect of having to face eight shinobi who were now prepared for his advances, he swung the handle of his blade at the loud mouth. The kashira made solid, satisfying, contact with their head, clearly disorientating them as they stumbled back. An action that Tobirama followed, continuing the momentum of his swing into a full spin to allow himself time to turn his blade around and thrust it at an upward angle. The blade travels through their gut to embed itself in their heart.
A harsh yank freed his tanto easily enough as he turned to face the three new arrivals, doing his best to keep his movements fluid and constant. He has to keep moving. Has to get to the pups. The blaze of burnt-sufficating-spice was still too far away, but his anchor was at least heading in the right direction. As long as Tobirama can kill off the scum, the pups will be retrieved without any further issues. He will make sure of that. The pups will make it out of here alive. If for no other reason then he can’t deal with the feeling of another pup’s signature extinguishing into nothingness. He wouldn’t be able to compartmentalize it, not in his current state. It would be too much. Would scrape him raw in a way he can’t currently recover from. Especially with the smallest of the three pups feeling too similar to the memory of extinguishing and terrified refreshing-swaying-herbs that had turned into rotting-erratic-herbs.
He can’t let the flicker of rotting-erratic-herbs fade away. Not again. He can’t do it again. The words echoing over and over as his blade slashed at the ones standing between him and his pup. He has to get to rotting-erratic-herbs. Has to get to his pup. Has to keep him alive this time. He can’t do this again-
More bodies hit the floor as he moves faster and faster. Making his way deeper into the cave system to the area his pup is trapped and in pain and terrified, but still there. Still alive and flickering faintly against his senses. Rotting-erratic-herbs that he will soothe back into refreshing-swaying-herbs.
He pushed chakra into his limbs, running through the cave as fast as he could, meeting four others on the way. All of which dropped dead in seconds as he passed them by. How exactly they died he’s not entirely sure. He simply felt the sharp tug of his chakra coils and then there was a lack of signatures following him. Which was fine. He doesn’t really care what happened to the scum who had taken and hurt his pup.
The last signature belonging to the scum was panicked and angry as they held down rotting-erratic-herbs, reaching for the pups eyes, and despite not understanding why the scum would try and rip out Itama’s eyes as if they held a dojutsu, he reacted all the same, turning the scum into nothing but a puddle of blood. The action creates a straight forward path for him to cross, stepping over the dead body easily, to pick up his poor pup, who is terrified and in pain and whimpering and feels of rotting-erratic-herbs instead of refreshing-swaying-herbs.
He crooned a sweet note at the pup, nosing at dirty, dark hair to try and calm his pup. The warm-milky scent helped to sooth his own nerves as he tried to pull himself back to the here and now. Tries to remove himself from his instincts so that he could properly think and check his pup over. It was hard. Far harder than he ever remembered it being to untangle his mind from his instincts, and he was only successful enough to remember that there were two other pups that had been taken with his own. A trill leaves his throat, beckoning the unknown pups to come closer so he could check them over once he’s finished making sure his pup is okay.
One of the unknown pups, who must be kin, they feel too similar to his own pup for them not to be kin, is far braver than the other, crossing the distance to invade his space, uncaring of any negative reaction the invasion could have caused. Silly pup, he huffed. They also seemed to be concerned about his pup as they began checking him over, earning a coo for their effort, until they tried to remove his pup from his arms. The light snap of his teeth at the air near their hand was a more than reasonable reprimand, but the poor pup must have been a lot more shaken then they had been letting on, because they immediately stumbled away as if scared.
Cooing at the traumatized pup, he went about trying to sooth them despite the distance they were keeping from him. His body language relaxed and welcoming, if a little protective of the small pup in his arms as he continued to try to scent his pup with his nonexistent smell. The lack of scent irritated his instincts, even as the scents that were already on his pup soothed his instincts back into place. The back and forth was dizzying-
Or maybe that was the blood loss.